SALEM, Ore. — They often don’t have places to wash their hands, struggle with health problems and crowd together in grimy camps.
That’s what makes homeless people particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. Almost 200,000 people live in those conditions in the United States, according to a White House report, with Washington, California and Oregon among the states most affected by homelessness as income inequality grows and housing costs rise.
And — in a possible recipe for disaster — the new virus has hit hardest on the West Coast, where nearly all of the nation’s more than a dozen deaths have occurred. Health officials have not yet reported coronavirus outbreaks among homeless populations, but tuberculosis and other diseases have swept through them in the past, underscoring their vulnerability.
Yet few communities that are trying to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus have rolled out plans to protect the homeless and give them a place to recover in isolation, which would prevent them from passing it on.
“They are double risk. One is a risk to themselves, the other is a risk to society,” said Chunhuei Chi, director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
King County, which includes Seattle and has seen most of the deaths in the U.S., is one of the few places that’s taken action: installing more than a dozen module units where infected homeless people can recover, some on county-owned land flanked by apartment buildings. The units, roughly the size of a mobile home that accommodate several people, were previously used by oil workers in Texas. County officials also bought a motel where coronavirus patients can recover in isolation.
That approach needs to be replicated in many more places, said Chi, who has been closely following the global outbreak that originated in China.
“This should be treated as an emergency policy, not as a permanent solution to homelessness, but more of framing it as a solution for containing the spread,” Chi said.
San Francisco says it’s developing a plan to protect the homeless from the virus but hasn’t released details yet. A cruise ship believed to be a breeding ground for more than 10 cases has been lingering off the coast of the city.
San Francisco postponed an event Thursday at a major arena that was to provide community services for the homeless. It typically draws up to 1,000 people and was delayed to reduce the risk of exposing the homeless population to coronavirus “because they are older as a group and typically have multiple chronic medical conditions,” the city said in a statement.
In Oregon’s capital city, where a makeshift homeless camp has sprouted up on downtown Salem sidewalks, an agency that aids the homeless is bringing in hand-washing stations.
“The homeless population in our community would be in a very difficult position of following all the health care advice that’s coming out right now,” said Jimmy Jones, executive director of the agency Community Action. “If you’re in a homeless camp, it’s very difficult to wash your hands. It’s very difficult to stay clean. It’s very difficult to practice good hygiene.”
